Helen rang up from Kirkmichael this morning, so we were able to exchange the traditional greeting – I’m not going to cast it into the Greek alphabet; too lazy. “Christos anesti” to which the reply is “Aleethos anesti”. (“Christ is risen” “He is risen indeed”) Jesus himself would have understood it, I reflected at some point. He presumably spoke Aramaic to his family and mates, but Greek was the overall language – it must have been used in his conversations with Pilate.

 

Don’t miss Jenny’s comment yesterday, with link. It is a marvellous example of the difficulties of oral transmission. It must be 50 years ago, give or take a few, when somebody local to Kirkmichael told me that primula denticulata were known as (what I heard as) “curry dumplings”. I think I have always vaguely assumed that it was a corruption of “current dumplings”. Whatever they might be. Whether or no, all our  children have grown up calling them that. But Jenny’s link demonstrates pretty conclusively, I think, that it’s really “Kirrie” dumplings, from Kirriemuir.

 

We’ve had a bonny Easter, not even very cold. Tamar (comment yesterday), I don’t think your daffodil could have bloomed and fallen in the cold, unless American daffodils are very unlike the locals. Somebody must have picked it. I have always observed that when cold weather –even very cold weather – overtakes daffodils at any stage, they just pull their overcoats up around their ears and wait it out, and go on growing and flowering when the weather improves. Edinburgh was full of them as we drove to Mass this morning.

 

MetroRebecca (another comment, yesterday): I’m pretty sure you’re right, that a superstition about green will have derived from the one-time toxicity of the dye. That was the sort of information which Kate Davies included in the interesting on-line essays with her recent “Allover” patterns, but omitted, alas, from the subsequent book.

 

Well, we got to Mass, as mentioned above. Otherwise things have been pretty quiet. I dealt with the last of the ends on the Calcutta Cup shawl. I’m ready for the off, tomorrow morning. I will have to watch the proceedings very closely at the beginning, so that Daniella resists the temptation of wringing water out of the shawl. She will be able to squeeze it pretty effectively, she’s strong, and then my procedure is to wrap it in a towel and stamp on it. And then do that again, with another towel. And then proceed to the pinning. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Wordle: this was an interesting one indeed. I scored the only three, somewhat restoring self-esteem after yesterday’s failure. Ketki and Roger and Rachel had five. It’s a funny word, not of Latin origin, surely an American word. (Big hint; I’m sorry.) But Alexander and his son Thomas got it in four – they’re not American. I think C. said she had a four as well. She’s also not American. Ketki sort-of is, so we can’t count her. But Rachel and Mark, two of our cleverest, got completely stuck this morning, and posted messages of despair to our Signal group before going off to celebrate Easter. Rachel has reappeared to post her five, claiming she only got it because there were no other letters left. (I’ve had that experience, although I can’t remember when.) I hope I’ll have news from Mark for you tomorrow, but there’s nothing yet.

 

But don’t forget: I got three.